Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

June-July 2009
by drnatus

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/27/2009
Entry Point: Little Indian Sioux River (north) (EP 14)
Exit Point: Moose/Portage River (north) (EP 16)  
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 8
Day 2 of 7
Sunday, June 28, 2009

Up early 4:30. Most guys took a shower the night before. I took the opportunity to take a shower the last minute to minimize my times between hot showers. Ate scrambled eggs and bacon in the kitchen at VNO bunkhouse.

Everything is packed in the VNO van and we are headed to EP # 14 and I am riding shotgun. We had a very nice driver, and as usual, as soon as he finds out I am an MD he asks me a few medical questions…I really don’t mind cause I am peppering him with all sorts of questions. E forgets his Dramamine and forgets to ride shotgun. He promptly loses his breakfast at the EP, stating the eggs didn’t taste as good the second time around! He tells the VNO driver where in our van he kept the Dramamine and asks him to bring it on the return trip…which the driver does… nice service! It’s starting to rain so we put on our frogg toggs and double portage the 40 rods, just to take things slow. The portage is rocky but all down hill. I am in the first canoe out and being ready, I want to tease the guys by making a few casts while they are still loading. On the third cast I catch a tiny 7 inch pike. I think to myself...at least I’m not getting skunked or this is going to be great fishing. We all head down the Little Indian Sioux which is a nice wide river but strewn with grass. Paddled around the beginnings of one beaver dam before hitting the first portage. This is a rather easy 60 rod that has a nice rapid to the right. We single portage this and are back on the river fairly quickly. The wind is picking up a little but gets fairly strong as we cross Upper Pauness and take the 40 rd to Lower Pauness. Paddling against the wind is difficult as I have the least experienced paddler in the bow. It was amazing the difference between the wind on Upper and Lower Pauness. Lower is nearly flat and our moods are lifted. We try a bit of fishing hoping the overcast will help, but nary a bite is felt. At the end of Lower is the portage that runs near Devil’s Cascade. It is a 160 rd portage and we decide to stop at the campsite if it is open to have lunch. The first part of the portage is up hill and we are singling this one. Full 75 lb packs and a canoe are a challenge. I am the first to the camp and it is good to have a break half way. One of the guys coming up next is wheezing pretty good, stating his asthma is kicking up. Turns out he also has a wrist injury that is flaring. Later, I have to make a judgment call as to whether he has a rip roaring tendonitis or the start of a cellulitis. No blood test available to help me! I diagnose correctly giving him a prednisone taper- curing his tendonitis and asthma flare with one prescription. Rain and wind have stopped and we have a lovely lunch of cheese, summer sausage and oranges. Can tell already we have packed too much food. The rest of the portage is down hill and at the re-entry to the LIS we see a deer. We all laugh as we all come from one of the counties with the highest deer populations in Ohio. I see deer everyday. Back on the LIS the wind and rain are really picking up. As we paddle onto Loon Lake we can see whitecaps in the distance. There is an island near the mouth and we decide to paddle to the leeward side as the wind is directly in our faces. There, in our canoes off the island, we take a break, have a power bar and fill up our water bottles. The decision is made to try and cross Loon to get to the leeward side and then make our way up the shoreline to Little Loon where we hope to camp. Setting out and looking ahead we all notice the whitecaps are big, 2-3’ at least. I yell out, “Is everyone comfortable with this?” as I am getting an uneasy feeling. No one says anything and we press on. Our goal is to try and stick together but the wind is very harsh and the strongest canoe is soon putting a bit of distance between the rest of us. My bow paddler is evidently nervous as he keeps stopping paddling and grabbing the sides of the canoe. I yell out, “Don’t Stop Paddling”. Too late, a big wave comes and we flip over to the right. I readily come up and am in disbelief, shore is about 150’ away to the windward side. The water feels warmer than the air but the waves are rough. We tried to flip the canoe, but without much success. I look and the packs are floating/blowing away. Our paddles are rescued. We are trying to help right the canoe when I start to lose my right boot. The boot string was tied, but these boots have a nasty habit of coming untied. I think, “this is just the first day, I can’t lose my boots” I do have a pair of tennis shoes in my pack that is blowing away, but I don’t want to risk losing my boots. So I proceed to try and hunch over and tie the blasted thing. Fortunately, my boat mate and I are both wearing our PFD’s. But even wearing a PFD, while in 3’ waves, bending over trying to tie my boot, it is not that easy to stay above water. I finally get the right boot tied and then take a few strokes and my heart sinks as I feel the left boot coming off. I go through the same procedure again. Twice during the boot tying episodes I miss time the waves, try to come up for air and there is no air to be found...just water. Twice I have to calm myself, realizing that if I just am in the proper position I will be ok. Nearly panicked. I know that I have to live for my wife and kids. Get the left boot tied and from there have no problem. I consider myself a fairly good swimmer, but without the PFD I would have had to lose the boots. By this time we are drifting away from the tipped canoe. Two of the other canoes are close together and have our canoe firmly in hand. The 4th canoe is across the lake, but heading back! They decide to bring our canoe close to shore and we will swim for it. Our canoe and paddles are safe, and all we have to do is swim. Neither of us are having any obvious problems now. The 3 canoes together make it to shore but land at around a point where we can’t see them. The 4th canoe has made it back and I tell them to tow my bow paddler to the others, which they do. I make it to shore, south of the point and am alone. The packs are here and I struggle to get the loaded packs onto the very rocky and fairly steep shore. I get the packs out and onto soil where they can be carried to the others and sit down to rest. I look out onto the lake, and here blowing ever closer is the map that John at VNO had made all of the notes upon. It is in a zip top bag. I decide I am not going to miss this opportunity and I wade/swim out grab the map and make it back to shore…what the heck, I was wet already. We learn later that one of our canoe chairs was not securely strapped in and this caused a shift when the waves hit. The winds that day were 40 mph- hence the tip. Ok, we actually made many mistakes: 1) Deciding to cross the lake. 2) Seat not strapped in. 3) Not listening to that voice in my head… and I am sure others that you all can point out J My bow paddler came looking for me and we carried the packs back to the others. We decide to rest there trying to wait out the wind. In the tip I lost my nalgene water bottle, my cup which was on the bottom of the bottle and my watch. My partner lost his tackle box. That was all and we were grateful for that, but instead of sleeping all that was running through my mind, again and again and again was how stupid I was to lose my water bottle. It’s odd but that was all I could think of. I wondered how my mistake would affect the group. Two other canoes got soaked, one tipping right near the shore and the other took on water as the waves battered it as it was not brought onto shore. We stayed 2 hours and it was getting onward of 3:30pm. We knew we had to make a decision. We decided to head along the windward side as that is where we were and camp at the 1st open site. I must confess that the rest of the trip, whenever it got choppy, my stomach was in the back of my throat. The first open campsite was just north of Heritage creek and there we set up. The rain had stopped but the wind was still pretty stiff. This was an advantage as we were able to dry out the bottom of the tents. Once the tents were up we needed to have Mass, after all, it was Sunday, and we were a bunch of Catholic guys with a priest! We did have one major problem…the hosts for Mass were soaked and unusable. We need some wheat bread, we did have pitas, but those did have yeast and we weren’t too keen on using them. A last minute decision in the grocery store lead me to buy tortillas for one meal instead of pitas. It just so happened that I picked up wheat tortillas- no yeast. We were golden. The readings were astounding. If the other guys were watching me they might have thought I wasn’t paying attention, but in truth, I had to look away cause I was getting choked up. Check out the readings if you like: http://www.usccb.org/nab/062809.shtml Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24, Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13, 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15, Mk 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43). Especially the Psalm really got to me. BTW, one of the other guys in the group had an extra water bottle and let me have it for the trip. After Mass we made dinner- steaks, fresh asparagus and mashed potatoes. I cooked the asparagus in a skillet with a little bit of oil, salted and sprinkled sesame seeds over them- delicious! After hanging things on clothes lines to dry overnight- after all the forecast said one day of wind and rain and then 75 and sunny the rest of the week- we sat by the fire a bit and went to bed. Of course, it rained that night. The bit of drying out that the wind had accomplished was undone. At this point I must say that I am very glad I had all quick dry clothing. I dried out very fast (except socks and my tennis shoes never dried the whole trip)